By Alieu Amara Suwu
Hon. Edward George from the Moyamba district block has lambasted fellow Members of Parliament of both the last and current Parliament about performance, lashed out at weak oversight committees, and criticized selfish and ineffective committee chairpersons; thus, he stressed that committees of the priority areas (the five big game changers) should not be given to weak chairmen of previous committees, especially those who did not submit reports or made complaints to the Public Account Committee (PAC) for probing ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).
Hon. George accused the former Chairperson of the Agricultural Committee of the Fifth Parliament of not making available fertilizers to MPs that the government supplied. He, therefore, said the opposition MPs should not also head any committee of the five-game changers.
He assertively lashed out: ‘Let us give the Big Five Committees to MPs that mean business, won’t personalize committees as one-man shows.” Some committee chairmen held no meetings or presented any reports; no committee has ever reported any MDA to the Chairman of the PAC; and we have colleague MPs here who do their work selfishly.’
He gave an eye-opener on the transition phase at the Ministry of Agriculture, where no visibility of the legacies the former Minister of Agriculture claimed to have left was made. He questioned, Where are the tractors? We saw only handing over, not machines!’
He said further that ‘there is no proper monitoring of farm implementation work!’
Hon. George thanked President Bio for appointing young people, for of the people elected are young; hence, they are ready to work to feed the people of this nation and for the SLPP to retain power for the next fifty years.
He, however, denied that MPs are not involved in providing drugs for youth. But called for the first drug, Kush.
Due to his critical thinking on the issues raised, the Acting Speaker, Hon. Sengehpoh Thomas, cautioned him to be guided.
The question begged by an anonymous interviewee was, How can SLPP lawmakers practically hold their government accountable when the uncomfortable truths are not expected to come from the right wing?’
